I really wanted to make Halloween special for Ollie, despite us deciding not to do trick-or-treating this year due to the Coronavirus.
It being a Saturday morning, we made an "Ollie movie" like we normally do. Today we made a really easy version of pumpkin cheesecake. I was very close to having Ollie dress as the Swedish Chef in honor of this year's past time of making baking videos. Unfortunately, I didn't decide to look for a mustache and eyebrows until the day before Halloween. The only thing I could find was an old man version and it wasn't close enough to justify waiting in a long line at Party City.
Due to our decision to not do trick-or-treating, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a costume. I did order a box of cheap costumes for Ollie to dress up in. I thought this was a good time as any to start is collection of pretend clothes since he is in the pretend play phase. A few of the costumes included a cowboy, a pirate, and a fireman. He loves the cowboy hat and will add it to any costume.
Very last minute, I decided that since our church was doing a drive-thru trunk or treat, I would make Ollie a costume. I asked Ollie the week before what he wanted to be and then he confirmed it Friday. I would go to Hobby Lobby during his nap time and turn him into a cow. I chose to put him in a black shirt and figured he could just wear black pants. I fabric glued felt spots and hot glued his ears and horn, made out of foam paper, on a headband and we were done.
When Ollie woke up from his nap, I was excited to show him his costume... Well, he wanted to be a fireman. Listen kid, I did not go to Hobby Lobby on a Saturday for you to change your mind. I planned to have Ollie do an easter egg hunt: Halloween edition. So we compromised. He could be a fireman during our scavenger hunt and then dress up as a cow afterward. He agreed, but he wanted to keep a shirt on underneath his cow shirt because I guess that's how we did it with the other costumes. He kept insisting on cow pants, again, because the other costumes had pants with them.
Full disclosure, I was not handling this well. I am an empathetic person, meaning I will take on the emotion of whoever is in the room. Does not mix well with a toddler melt down. Add on pregnancy hormones and... well I am grateful for my very calm husband who could be a hostage negotiator if he wasn't a pastor.
Also, I included a cowbell and that won Ollie over. (Insert obvious Christopher Walken joke here). Just like every other battle we have with him, once we got Ollie to do the thing, he enjoyed doing the thing.
I mentioned how our church was doing a drive-thru trunk or treat. I wanted to do a trunk that went along with Ollie's costume. So, it was very easy to go through our house and find farm themed fall decorations. I cut up one of the paneling sheets we took off our wall forever ago and turned it into a fence and used a couple of Ollie's stuffed animal horses. I also brought a pedal tractor.
Before we headed to church I put a sacrificial bowl of candy for the neighborhood kids. They (or one) accepted all the candy and our house is safe from egging for another year.
Ollie's friend from church and his sisters were there and Ollie was ecstatic. As soon as he saw him he yelled "there's my friend!" And then ran up to him and said hi, and then ran back to me to tell me he said hi. They had so much fun taking turns on the tractor. I was so proud of Ollie for how well he shared. He also helped me wave hello to the cars.
We finished the day by eating at Braums, I don't know what we were thinking. You can't take a little boy to an ice cream restaurant and not expect him to eat ice cream. If there is a day to be pumped full of sugar and then end the day with sugar, I guess it's Halloween.
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